Poker Games
by Kamakaze Kheri
Summary: They were determined not to lose to Travis again; after all, it had been his sixteenth straight win.


**This is my second piece for ej8012's 50 sentence contest. It's more like a drabble and has no real plot to it as I couldn't really elaborate too much with only fifty sentences to work with. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story.**

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The poker games held at Camp Half-Blood were always a big deal. After all, it was a big step up from the pinochle games that Mr. D always hosted.

Everybody was tired of pinochle.

The games usually consisted of a few main people: Percy, Annabeth, Travis and Conner Stoll, Clarisse, Grover and Silena and Beckendorf when they had been around. They had the occasional person drop in to play with them every once in a while; a guy from the Apollo cabin or a girl from the Demeter cabin. Either way, they usually had only about six or seven players.

That night it was only the regular six who crowded around the secluded table in the woods. They sat huddled around the stump, guarding their cards like precious gems and glancing between once another as a wood nymph dealt the cards.

They all seemed to have their specialties; Travis seemed to have a knack for pulling double aces out of nowhere while Conner always seemed to have the beginning of a straight. Annabeth could make a good hand out of anything whereas Percy usually kept the cards of the same suit. Clarisse wasn't usually one to have a good hand and almost always won her rounds through bluffing and Grover usually turned to a nervous wreck and ended up folding.

The group checked their cards carefully; mainly watching out for Travis and Conner, who always seemed to know their cards and looked at everyone else's, and wood nymphs who were sometimes hired by Clarisse to cheat.

Finally, the betting began.

Due to the fact that the poker chips had been confiscated from them when Silena had gone around and done a cleaning check and completely forgot about their games, the group used whatever they could find. Today they were using marshmallows that the Stoll Brothers had stolen from Mr. D when he wasn't looking.

Percy tossed in enough marshmallows to equal two drachmas. Annabeth raised her eye brows but rose the betting to five drachmas. Travis dumped on enough for another six and Conner topped that with two more. Grover folded and handed his cards to the wood nymph and soon, all eyes were on Clarisse.

This was usually where the betting began to get heavy.

Clarisse dumped in another pile of marshmallows and the wood nymph flipped over another card to go with her eight of hearts, seven of clubs and ace of spades. There was now a jack of diamonds in play as well.

Percy folded, throwing his cards to the middle of the table as the others began to bet. Enough marshmallows were added to the growing pile to equal a pot of twenty drachmas.

After looking around once more, the nymph flipped over her last card: the ace of diamonds.

Annabeth folded immediately after, knowing what was to come. Conner and Clarisse held their own though, knowing that if they were right, they didn't have a hope of winning the poker game.

Piles of marshmallows flooded in from Travis, Conner and Clarisse. Soon the pot was up to fifty and Conner folded.

Clarisse wouldn't back down though.

The pot rose to seventy-five and then one hundred drachmas.

"Care to keep going?" Travis asked, grinning. He knew that Clarisse would like to, but at this rate she was going to have to beat up her siblings for money.

"Fine, Stoll, you win," Clarisse grumbled as she flung her cards into the middle, revealing that she had been bluffing the whole game.

Travis, smiled and pulled the marshmallows towards him, throwing his cards into the middle too.

"Double aces again?" Annabeth cried out as she glanced at Travis's cards. "Do you bribe this nymph or something?"

Travis shook his head. "I swear on the River Styx that I had no part in pulling this hand together. Like all things, it was luck."

The other five pulled enough money out of their pockets to pay off the pot and Travis dropped it into a small coin bag resting at his feet. He had apparently been anticipating a win.

The group silently shuffled away from the table, bidding each other good night in the process.

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The next day the same group could be seen crowding down at the end of the docks.

Travis had the earphones in to his new iPod which he had bought at the camp store while Percy whispered urgently between them.

"Same time and place but next Friday, okay? The capture the flag game ruins it for this week."

"Don't worry, shrimp," Clarisse assured. "We'll be there."

The others nodded in agreement before slinking off.

They were determined not to lose to Travis again; after all, this had been his sixteenth straight win.

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**Sorry if I messed up any poker related hands and whatever; I have a limited knowledge and had to use the help of Wikipedia for a lot of it. Reviews would be loved. :)**


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